Thursday, February 28, 2013

Just what we need: 3 new cockroach species

Zongqing Wang

This image shows the back and front of Pseudophoraspis recurvata, one of the newly described species.

By LiveScience

Cockroaches have been crawling on the planet since before the time of the dinosaurs, and today there are more than 4,500 species known to science. Researchers are adding three more to that list.

Though they fall into the giant cockroach family (Blaberidae) these newly found, yellow-bodied creatures are small compared with some of their cousins ? they grow just a little more than an inch (3 centimeters) in length in adulthood, compared with Blaberus giganteus, for example, which can reach lengths of 4 inches (10 cm).

The recently discovered insects are the first of the genus Pseudophoraspism to be found in China, researchers say. Until now, cockroaches of that genus had only been documented in Southeast Asia, never north of Vietnam.

"We found three new species from China, located in Hainan, Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces respectively, which extends the range of the genus Pseudophoraspis northward," entomologist Zongqing Wang of China's Southwest University said in a statement.

The new species ? which are named Pseudophoraspis clavellata, Pseudophoraspis recurvata and Pseudophoraspis incurvata ? were described online this week in the journal ZooKeys.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?and Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/28/17136545-just-what-the-world-needs-3-new-cockroach-species?lite

roland martin suspended lake vostok montgomery county public schools the river dr dog ke$ha earl

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.